Postmedia Community Inc. has introduced plans to purchase “certain businesses” belonging to SaltWire Community Inc. and The Halifax Herald Ltd., the 2 bancrupt corporations behind Atlantic Canada’s largest newspaper chain.
The Toronto-based firm, which owns publications together with the Nationwide Submit, Vancouver Solar, Calgary Herald and Ottawa Citizen, says it needs to finish the acquisition by Aug. 26. However the firm issued a press release Friday saying the deal is topic to circumstances, together with approval from the Nova Scotia Supreme Courtroom and “satisfactory outcomes” with unionized employees.
Postmedia CEO Andrew MacLeod stated the corporate intends to supply the assets to make sure “reliable and high-quality local news” continues to be supplied to the affected communities within the Atlantic area.
“SaltWire filed for (protection from its creditors) after years of financial difficulties, underscoring that its current operational model is unsustainable,” MacLeod stated within the assertion.
“In order to save critical journalism jobs, we will need the support of the relevant unions to help construct a viable business model.”
No monetary particulars have been disclosed and MacLeod didn’t clarify what he needs from the unions that symbolize the 2 media corporations’ employees.
“We urge all stakeholders, including employees and community leaders, to support our efforts. The future of local journalism in the Atlantic provinces depends on everyone’s co-operation in a successful restructuring,” MacLeod stated.
Willy Palov, president of the Halifax Typographical Union, stated he was happy to see a possible deal in place. However he stated there weren’t sufficient particulars revealed to touch upon the way it will have an effect on the journalists and different employees at The Chronicle Herald that his union represents.
“The news is still fresh … the members and I will have to review the proposed terms before we can say a whole lot more,” Palov stated. “Journalists and workers at the paper are hoping the company will invest in quality news coverage that serves the community and keeps readers informed about what is going on in their communities.”
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The Halifax Herald Ltd. owns The Chronicle Herald, the impartial Halifax-based each day newspaper that was based virtually 200 years in the past.
SaltWire Community Inc. owns different each day newspapers in Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and Newfoundland, together with the Cape Breton Submit in Sydney, N.S., the Guardian in Charlottetown and the Telegram in St. John’s, N.L., in addition to weekly papers and a number of other digital publications. Collectively, the businesses make use of about 800 impartial contractors and 390 workers, together with about 100 unionized positions, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.
The assertion didn’t specify which companies Postmedia plans to purchase.
Lana Payne, nationwide president of Unifor, issued a press release saying the union is reviewing how the provide will have an effect on unionized employees on the St. John’s Telegram. She didn’t present particulars.
Unifor represents 35 reporters, videographers, printing press operators and promoting employees on the newspaper, and greater than 10,000 media employees throughout the nation.
On March 11, Toronto-based Fiera Personal Debt Fund initiated insolvency proceedings in opposition to SaltWire and The Herald below the federal Corporations’ Collectors Association Act, saying the businesses owed greater than $90 million to a protracted checklist of collectors after a number of years of mismanagement. On the time, Fiera alleged that senior managers had left the operations “on the verge of a liquidity crisis.”
The federal act permits corporations with greater than $5 million in debt to keep away from chapter whereas drafting a plan that ensures collectors obtain some cost for what they’re owed.
As senior secured lender, Fiera has stated SaltWire and The Herald collectively owe it $32.7 million.
Fiera had lent cash to SaltWire to assist the Halifax-based firm pay for its 2017 acquisition of Transcontinental Nova Scotia Media, which printed greater than two dozen newspapers and web-related properties, and owned 4 printing vegetation. In 2019, SaltWire filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in opposition to Transcontinental, alleging the corporate overstated revenues the enterprise would produce.
When Fiera went to courtroom in March, the non-public lender stated SaltWire and the Herald had been in default for greater than 5 years and have been making little progress repaying money owed. The media corporations have been additionally accused of failing to high up pension funds and remit HST funds to the federal authorities.
On March 13, Nova Scotia Supreme Courtroom Justice John Keith granted the businesses safety from collectors, a measure that has been prolonged a lot of instances.
Moderately than push the media corporations into receivership, Fiera has supported a restructuring and sale course of by way of a sequence of loans which have allowed SaltWire and The Herald to maintain working below CCAA.
On March 25, Keith accepted a so-called gross sales and funding solicitation course of, which concerned canvassing the marketplace for companies keen to purchase or put money into some or all the deeply indebted corporations’ enterprise operations and property.
On June 20, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the insolvency proceedings, Toronto-based KSV Restructuring Inc., confirmed the choice of an unnamed bidder.
With the assistance of the monitor, Keith will finally resolve whether or not the deal will make sure the survival of the businesses and permit collectors to obtain some type of cost for quantities owing.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
